Massive Bowl of Plastic Soup

Enormous quantities of plastic trash enter our oceans daily through watersheds, rivers, storm drains and more. We estimate approximately 10,000 pounds of plastic a day flow into the Pacific from Los Angeles alone. Once at sea, these plastics accumulate in massive, rotating oceanic currents called “gyres,” and are the source of countless environmental nightmares–from sea birds choking on toothbrushes and cigarette lighters, to microscopic particles attracting toxins like PCBs and DDT before being consumed by fish. (Which leads me to ask: is there plastic in my sushi?)

The “massive bowl of plastic soup” that AMRF researches is the the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. For additional information, you can listen to NPR’s Scott Simon interview oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer, or read about it at How Stuff Works.

If you’d like to share this story with children, check out Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion. And if you’re interested in reducing your plastic consumption and use, Lucy Siegle has some advice for you, in “Is It Possible to Go Plastic-free?”